On Wed, 14 May 2008 23:12:11 -0400, Sabrina Kilian wrote:

> On Tue, 13 May 2008 23:58:45 -0400, Jim Henderson wrote:
> 
>> This is true of many drugs in general, IMHO.
>>
> Yup, at least here in the USA. Every drug has a theme and a catchy new
> name for a disorder that's been around for a long time. But the one with
> the catchiest words gets prescribed.

Yeah, and that's a huge societal problem.  

>> Just look at the number of Ritalin scripts written in the 90's in the
>> US.  Many of the kids who this (or other ADD-"fighting" drugs) was
>> prescribed for didn't actually need it.
>>
>> [...]
>>
> I'm afraid that if I commented on this, I would end up ranting. I'll
> leave it as that I agree with you on this point, and lazy parenting
> seems to be a source of a lot of issues.

Agreed.  I have a pretty good rant about this as well - especially with 
the school Ken went to, a lot of the parents seemed to treat their kids 
as fashion accessories.  Those were the parents we weren't terribly 
friendly with.

One of Ken's friends came over to the house after a particularly bad day, 
and my wife went over and gave him a hug.  His reaction was fairly 
disconcerting - he basically locked rigid.  Turned out he *couldn't 
remember* the last time his mom hugged him.

My wife wanted to bitch-slap her for that....How can you not hug your own 
kid?

> Some people can't exercise, so I can see the use of the medication. On a
> bad day when I can't walk, my legs get that feeling. And when you can't
> walk with two canes and a decent level of opioid compounds in your blood
> stream, you just aren't going to get that exercise. On the up side, you
> don't notice "RLS" with that level of pain killers, so it doesn't often
> become an issue.

I suppose I could see that.  But like Darren suggested, the number of 
people who actually *need* it is probably far fewer than those who get 
it.  But the thing that really disturbs me is the advertising "ask your 
doctor if Vaxodrine is right for you" - why SHOULD I?  Is that why my 
DOCTOR is my DOCTOR?  He's the one who went to medical school, not me.

> 
> Diphenhydramine HCL(Benadryl) gives me the heebeejeebees, plain and
> simple. Past seeing spots, even the allergy dose has me seeing cats
> walking through walls. Probably why SSRIs give me trouble too, since
> Benadryl begot Prozac begot the rest of the whole mess.
> 
> 
> Also funny, seeing a doctor's face when the read 'Allergic to benadryl'
> on a form. They don't know how to process 'allergic to an anti-allergy
> medication'.

LOL, I may have to ask my allergist about that when I have my next 
appointment with him.  My reaction to taking a couple of the tablets 
isn't something I'd consider normal.

The only bad reaction I can remember having is hydrocodone - 
hallucinations, lack of sleep (hallucinating that I was sleeping was odd 
- and went on for a week).  Nasty stuff, apparently less than %0.01 of 
people who take it have the reaction I did.

Don't even remember what he replaced it with, but it was as effective for 
the pain (I had a broken leg at the time).

Jim

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